Block Grant Partnerships (BGPs) are awards made to Research Organisations (ROs) for an allocation of postgraduate studentships in specific subject areas and schemes (ie Masters or Doctoral). The allocations are for 5 cohorts of students, commencing with students beginning their postgraduate study in the 2009-10 academic year.
The studentship places will be advertised by the RO on an annual basis (these may vary from year to year depending on their allocation). The organisation will shortlist candidates based on open competition and shortlisted students will be nominated to AHRC. All students must meet our eligibility criteria (see Guide to Student Funding 2011). AHRC plays no part in the assessment and selection of students so if you are a student you need to contact the organisation directly to find out about their selection processes.
A list of organisations that have a BGP award is available, along with a summary of the total studentships offered under the BGP awards by scheme and subject. The first round of the BGPs ensured stability of arts and humanities disciplines, in the context of previous AHRC funding patterns.
Closing date for receipt of BGP proposals is 4pm on 2 September 2008
Organisations must submit their proposal through the cross-council Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) System. The proposal form, with detailed question specific helptext, is avaliable. The BGP Proposal Guidance document below provides details on the content of this proposal form in order to aid organisations in planning their proposal.
List of organisations with BGP funding (pdf 28kb)
Summary of the total studentships offered (excel spreadsheet 71kb) (by scheme and subject)
Postgraduate Funding Opportunities FAQs (pdf 78kb)
Guide to Student Funding 2011 (pdf 471kb)
Guide to Student Funding 2010 (pdf 329kb)
BGP Award Holder Guide (pdf 272kb)
BGP Terms and Conditions (pdf 163kb)
Block Payments Mechanism FAQ (pdf 176kb)
Guidelines for Use of Research Training Support Grant (pdf 78kb)
Changes to AHRC Student Finisher Reports
In previous years, the AHRC has required all students in receipt of AHRC awards to submit a Student Finisher Report. The AHRC has taken the decision to no longer request Student Finisher Reports from Project Students and from students in receipt of BGP or BGP Capacity-Building awards. This applies to Project Students and BGP/BGP CB students who will finish their studies from 2010/2011 onwards. However, we will still be requiring a final report to be submitted for CDA awards.
Although the AHRC no longer require Student Finisher Reports for Project Students and BGP/BGP CB students, we will still need assurance that students are receiving appropriate, high-level support, and this will be monitored through visits and other reporting.
The Guide to Student Funding 2011 will be updated to include information about arrangements for monitoring of student support in place of the Student Finisher Reports. The new Guide will be available on our website shortly.
Research Training Framework
In 2004 the AHRC introduced a framework of research training requirements for its doctoral award holders.
Information for Current award holders
The AHRC work with the RCUK Shared Services Centre (SSC) to deliver all of our funding activities. All queries regarding eligibility for funding and applications in progress and also queries regarding current awards, should be directed to the SSC team dealing with your subject area using the contacts page.